Crockpot Nashville Hot Chicken

This Crockpot Nashville Hot Chicken delivers all the spicy, buttery flavor of classic Nashville hot chicken without any frying!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 4

Total Time 4 5

Servings sandwiches

Calories 458kcal

Author Karly Campbell

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper more to taste - see notes
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 sandwich buns buttered and toasted on a skillet
Dill pickles for serving
Mayonnaise or ranch for serving

Instructions

Place the chicken breasts into the bottom of a slow cooker.
Add the butter to a small sauce pan over medium heat and let melt.
Once melted, add the remaining ingredients and whisk well to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. The mixture will not be smooth or well combined - the spices will stay separate from the oil and may clump together a bit.
Remove from the heat and pour over the chicken.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours, until the chicken easily shreds apart.
Shred the chicken and stir it well to coat in the juices in the slow cooker.
Serve on buns with dill pickles and mayonnaise or ranch.

Notes

Nashville hot sauce is originally made by pouring the hot oil leftover from frying chicken over the spices. We don’t often deep fry chicken in our house, so we’re using butter in place of frying oil.

For extra heat, use up to 4 tablespoons of cayenne. As is, we think this is just spicy enough to keep it interesting without being so spicy we can only take 1-2 bites.

The sauce will never come together into a smooth, traditional style sauce. The spices and butter will separate - this is natural and expected with Nashville hot sauce.

Traditional Nashville hot chicken sandwiches are served with dill pickles and that's fabulous - absolutely love it. But, sometimes when I want to sneak in extra veg, I make our dill pickle slaw to top these. It adds such a fresh crunch!

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